Ork Empire

"There are beasts among the stars, beasts that would crush our lives, make ash of our worlds and break all that we hold sacred. The beasts wait in the dark and shunned reaches like the things glimpsed in the forests of old, things that looked out with red, shining eyes and hearts filled with the joy of ruin."

— From remarks on the "Nature of the Unknown" by Estivan Mauritin, advisor to Rogue Trader Hiram Sult

An Ork Empire, also called an Ork Domain, is a region of the Milky Way Galaxy that is controlled by the xenos menace known as the Orks. Living on innumerable worlds, on some, the Orks dominate completely, on others they live in a state of perpetual war, and on others still they act as slavemasters, bullying the local populations into doing their bidding.

Across the galaxy there are isolated Ork Worlds, interstellar Ork realms, massive Ork empires, and Ork hordes that roam the stars upon gigantic Space Hulks. Wherever humans have travelled in the galaxy, they have found Orks. It has been tens of thousands of standard years since humanity first encountered the Orks, and in that time Mankind has fought countless conflicts with these war-loving aliens. Barbaric and savage, the Greenskins spread across the galaxy like viridian locusts. They plague the battlefields of the late 41st Millennium in great numbers, overrunning any who stand before them in a torrent of bloodshed and usually mindless violence.

Orks need battle just as humans need food and drink. Due to their warlike nature, they constantly fight amongst themselves, or launch piratical raids upon nearby enemies. Such conflicts tend to be small-scale or localised. They never really develop beyond random outbursts of violence and looting.

However, Ork populations can reach a critical mass that leads to a full-scale planetary migration. This is known as a WAAAGH!, a crusade of pure aggression that crashes through star systems in an orgy of violence. An Ork WAAAGH! is war on an apocalyptic scale. Orks beyond counting swarm from one world to the next. Whole civilisations are exterminated and defenders' armies laid to waste as the Orks plough ever onward in an unstoppable tide.

Contents

History

Ork Expansion

The galaxy is vast beyond the imaginings of the most ambitious despot. Yet this does not daunt the Orks as they simply don't think about it. Instead, they plough from one conquest to the next, secure in the knowledge that one day, they will rule it all. Wherever humans have travelled, they have found Orks. It has been tens of thousands of standard years since Humanity first encountered them, and in that time Mankind has fought countless bloody wars against these savage aliens, and there is no likelihood that this state of affairs will ever change.

There are numerous Ork empires, each spreading across the galaxy like a noxious green stain, and no star system is entirely devoid of their touch. Some theorise that the Orks do not use conventional methods of interstellar travel because they follow some deep-seated instinctual plan of galactic conquest, but the truth is far simpler. The Greenskins have not mastered the art of space travel because they really do not care where they are going, only that they get to fight whoever and whatever is there when they arrive.

Notable Ork Empires

Ork Empire of Gorro

When the Emperor of Mankind revealed Himself to Humanity following the Long Night of the Age of Strife in the middle of the 30th Millennium, he shaped war-torn Terra into a single unified world for the first time in long millennia. Once he had conquered Terra, He looked to taking His Great Crusade to the stars. Having created the foundations of the Imperium of Man, He launched His massive armies out into the galaxy, seeking to bring all of human-settled space back under the control of a unified stellar empire.

During these early conquests, many Imperial Expeditionary Fleets encountered the Greenskin menace -- a violent xenos species designated as the Orks by the early Imperium. Within the Telon Reach was an Ork empire that rivalled that centred on Ullanor, and at its heart was the scrap world of Gorro. The Ork tech-caste, the Mekboyz, dominated the Orks of Gorro and had made the world their own. The dominant tech-caste on Gorro seemed to be fascinated by a form of plasma technology never encountered before or since. Capable of generating destructive yields of terrifying potency, these Plasma Weapons had done much to blunt the Great Crusade's advance across the Telon Reach. The Emperor decreed that Gorro must be destroyed.

The Greenskin empire that once claimed dominion over its stars was soon in flames, assailed on all sides by the inexhaustible armies of the Imperium. The aliens' empire was quickly overturned, their muddy fortress-worlds burning, but not quickly enough. Gorro was the key. Adrift in the distant light of a bloated red sun, where no planet had ever been wrought by inexorable time and gravity, it drifted on an erratic path. Its destruction was made the Crusade's highest priority.

The command came from the hand of the Emperor Himself, and His most favoured and brightest son -- Horus Lupercal, Primarch of the Luna WolvesLegion -- answered His call to arms. When a thousand-strong fleet of warships dropped out of the Warp above Gorro it was the Emperor Himself who gave the order to begin the assault. Horus, ever the dutiful and favoured son, stood at the Emperor's side and watched as tens of thousands of assault craft spread out from the fleet. The Luna Wolves teleported into the scrap layers beneath the planet's surface, forced to hollow out Gorro from within due to the planet's high resistance to orbital bombardment.

In the vanguard was the Emperor and by His side was Horus and a guard of black-armoured JustaerinTerminators from the Luna Wolves' 1st Company as well as the golden-clad warriors of the Legio Custodes. As the Space Marines attacked, the Ork resistance they faced was near-overwhelming. The Orks of Gorro were huge and augmented with scavenged bionics. Some stood taller than Dreadnoughts and their weaponry burned through Astartes Power Armour easily.

At the height of the battle, the fury of the Orks split the Emperor from His guards. Alone He slew hundreds of them until a blast from an Ork Plasma Weapon weakened His defences and one of the Ork leaders seized Him. The creature's strength was so great that it took hold of the Emperor and buckled His golden armour. As the creature's grasp closed to throttle the Master of Mankind, Horus stormed through the press of battle and cut the Ork's arms from its body with a single blow.

Together father and son led their forces deeper into the vast sphere of scrap until they reached the centre of Gorro. The Emperor worked to collapse the self-sustaining plasma sphere that powered much of the world's scavenged Ork technology and that contained a Warp-fold envelope, so that Gorro would implode into the Immaterium. The Emperor proved successful, and without its power source, the scrap world collapsed in on itself. A hollow skin of rusted metal around an empty void was all that remained to mark the death of the great Ork empire of Gorro.

Ork Empire of Ullanor

During the Great Crusade era, the Ullanor Sector was ruled over by the Ork Overlord Urrlak Urruk from the world of the same name. The central foundation of his empire was a dozen planets, originally inhabited by humans, which had been conquered and enslaved by the Orks. Horus employed the use of the now famous "Speartip" tactic to destroy the Ork empire by removing its head. The White Scars and UltramarinesSpace Marine Legions, supported by the Excertus Imperialis and other forces such as the Legio Titanicus of the Mechanicum, attacked the outer planets of the Ullanor System. This offensive was a decoy, though it proved quite effective. Many of the Orks' starships rushed to prevent the attacks on the outer planets, leaving the central planet dangerously vulnerable and exposed to the waiting main body of the Imperial forces, led by the Astartes of the Luna WolvesLegion. The Luna Wolves' Legion fleet headed straight for this central world, and more specifically for Urlakk's fortress-palace.

The main attack force dedicated to capturing the capital planet of the Ullanor System consisted of the entire Luna Wolves Legion, over 2 million Imperial Army soldiers, and one hundred Titans of the Collegia Titanica, including Titans from the infamous Legio Mortis. All of these forces were later joined by the human slaves liberated from the Orks' labour camps by the invading Imperial troops. This force was led by the Emperor Himself; though Imperial records do not indicate what role he played in this action. Little is known regarding the actual makeup of the defending Ork forces. However it is known that they outnumbered the Imperial troops by a 5-to-1 ratio.

Ignoring the Greenskin masses, Horus and his Legion struck directly at the Overlord and his command coterie of Ork Nobz and Ogryns, leaving the enemy headless and without direction. The attack took place by Drop Pod, with heavy gunships deploying Imperial armoured vehicles to the battle zone. This force attacked the perimeter defences. Horus then teleported to the base of Urrlak's great central keep, the Tower of Ullanor, accompanied by all of the Terminators from the elite 1st Company of the Luna Wolves. Whilst most of the Terminators held off the Greenskin horde, which was rushing back to the tower to defend its master, Horus fought his way up to the pinnacle of that great edifice, accompanied by only the 10 Terminators who were the members of the Justaerin Squad of First CaptainEzekyle Abaddon.

At the summit of the Tower of Ullanor was a vast throne chamber where Horus found the Ork Overlord surrounded by 40 of his biggest Nobz. Horus immediately stormed into battle, utilising the twin Lightning Claws of his Power Armour to rip apart the enemy in close combat. The Terminators were unwilling to fire into this melee, lest they hit their beloved Primarch. The Terminators therefore immediately fell upon the Orks with their own close-combat weapons. Eventually, Horus hacked his way through the Overlord's bodyguard, until he came face-to-face with Urrlak, a truly gargantuan Ork Warlord. Despite the fact that Urrlak was an immense, towering, green-skinned brute, Horus managed to cripple the Ork leader in the following duel. Horus held the Ork Overlord aloft above his head and carried him to the battlements of the Tower of Ullanor. Horus threw the screaming, bloody form of the Ork Overlord down to the ground, ending the reign of Urrlak Urruk with a green-blooded splat. When Horus returned to the throne chamber he found all the Terminators and Orks dead...apart from one. The sole survivor he found was none other than the gore-drenched Captain of the 1st Company, Ezekyle Abaddon. He was surrounded by a great pile of broken Ork bodies.

With the death of its leader, the Ork forces collapsed into infighting as was their wont and the battle for Ullanor soon became a massacre, as the remaining Orks found themselves trapped between the two forces of the Luna Wolves, including the remaining Luna Wolves Terminators at the base of the great central Tower of Ullanor and those who had breached the perimeter walls of the tower complex. The remainder of the Ullanor Sector was subdued by the forces of the Crusade and returned to Imperial rule within the standard year, as the Ork empire had completely fragmented upon hearing of its master's death once the various Nobz declared themselves the new Warlords and fought each other for control. With Urg's termination, the nascent Ork empire self-destructed, and the xenos that were not hounded into the mud of Ullanor's vast battlegrounds would be hunted down across hundreds of star systems, all the way to Chondax, the Kayvas Belt and beyond.

Ghaslakh Xenohold

During the Great Crusade era, the Ghaslakh Xenohold, an Ork infestation long ignored, was presented to the Adepts of the Officio Militaris as a grave threat to the security of the Imperium's eastern domains. Its existence served as the pretext under which the WarmasterHorus, his treachery then undreamed of, marshalled the combined might of the Ultramarines and Word BearersLegions at Calth. In the aftermath of Horus' rebellion, many within the Imperium have doubted whether the xenohold ever existed, that perhaps it was a fiction to justify the removal of the XIIIth Legion from the Imperium's core. Yet there are some surviving accounts of Ultramraines-sponsored Explorator sweeps of that region of space, including evidence of Ork attacks on the Fortress World of Golsoria. If Ghaslakh did exist as a credible threat to Mankind, any devastation its inhabitants wreaked on the defenceless worlds around it has long since been forgotten amid the destruction wrought by Horus and his allies. Of Ghaslakh itself, no trace now remains to satisfy the curiosity of scholars.

Dregruk and Gathrog

The empires ruled by the Great Despot of Dregruk and the Arch-Dictator of Gathrog have been at war for solar decades. Lying to the galactic north of the Eye of Terror, the resolution of their conflict could have major repercussions. Should so vast a tide of Orks unite, the resulting WAAAGH! could potentially change the face of the war for the Cadian Gate. Were forces from Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade to meet it as they poured into the region, the Despoiler's plans for galactic conquest would be severely disrupted, quite possibly saving the entire galaxy from annihilation. Yet these two Ork empires could never be persuaded to abandon a perfectly good (and very enjoyable) battle for such a noble and civilised cause. Excepting some miraculous act by Gork (or possibly Mork!), the empires of Dregruk and Gathrog will fight on, blissfully unconcerned as their chance to change the fate of all slips away.

Ork Empire of Charadon

The Ork empire of Charadon is the largest and most long-standing of its kind in the late 41st Millennium. Controlled by a pyromaniac Ork berserker known as the Arch-Arsonist, Charadon has been the bane of the Ultima Segmentum for countless Terran centuries. The Arch-Arsonist counts his victories not by the worlds he has conquered but by those left blazing in his wake. His legendary propensity for leaving even the most well-defended worlds as searing conflagrations has garnered him a sprawling empire of Greenskins devoted to his cause. Each successive Warlord of Charadon takes the title of Arch-Arsonist, lending the persona a kind of immortality. Until recently, the expansion of the empire of Charadon was kept to a minimum by the efforts of Chief LibrarianVarro Tigurius and the Space Marines of the UltramarinesChapter. Yet in the face of the increasing Tyranid threat, their success is beginning to wane. The current Arch-Arsonist has seized his chance to invade Ultramar, swearing that he will reduce Macragge itself to cinders.

Ork Empire of Calverna

The Arch-Maniac of Calverna rose to power after conquering the Forge World of Magnos Majoris, the iron heart of the Calverna System. The wily old DeathskullsWarlord then cemented his power for good by having himself wired into the almighty central processing engine of the Forge World, turning himself into the biggest Cybork ever seen. Though this rather drastic step has left the Arch-Maniac all but invincible, the vast data-streams pouring into his tiny brain have also driven him quite mad. So it is that, while the Orks of the Calvernan empire are numerous and well equipped with tanks and guns, their attacks are random and display little in the way of logic or cogent strategy.

Ork Empire of Octarius

The Ork Empire of Octarius is an Ork Empire that stretches throughout the Octarius Sector, a region of space almost as large as the Realm of Ultramar. Located in the Ultima Segmentum, it is centred on the Ork World of Octarius. Controlled by the Empire's ruler, known as the Overfiend of Octarius, this Ork Warlord has bedevilled the Imperium, ruling his alien empire in the heart of the Emperor's realm. In the closing years of 989.M41, the Imperial InquisitorKryptman would redirect a portion of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan into the Octarian Empire. Blaktoof, the current Overfiend of Octarius, launched a counterinvasion straight into the maw of the Tyranid Hive Fleet. The resulting war has badly bled both sides, but it has yet to be determined which side will emerge victorious.

Other Notable Ork Empires

In 815.M41, Grog Ironteef, the Warchief of Alsanta, leads a mighty WAAAGH! against the burgeoning Tau Empire, gathering up all the dakka he could to counter the firepower of his more advanced foes. This conflict comes to be known as the War of Dakka. The WAAAGH! was only halted with the defeat of Grog by the vaunted TauCommander Farsight upon the world of Vior'los, though none were there to witness it. Though the Tau had won a great victory, the Greenskin threat to their domain was still not ended.

Led by the Mighty Mangler of Bork, this Ork Warboss launched WAAAGH! Bork in 898.M41. To the dismay of the Imperial armies sent to intercept him, the Mighty Mangler lived up to his name. WAAAGH! Bork collapsed the defences of the Ghoul Stars and claimed a great area of the galactic fringe for the Orks.

A large WAAAGH! led by Ork Warlord Gragnatz devastated the Vorsk Sub-sector in the late 41st Millennium. Though the WAAAGH!'s progress was temporarily slowed by the presence of Warprift "Hellfury", it emerged bolstered by the presence of Kogtoof's Ork fleet. By the time Gragnatz's Grand Armada reached the Vorsk Sub-sector its numbers were further swelled by the Big Boss of Orguk, forming a galactic onslaught capable of crushing several star systems at once.

Notable Ork Worlds

Planet Name

Segmentum

Sector

Sub-Sector

System

Notes

Absteron

Unknown

Vorsk Sub-sector

Unknown

Unknown

Sometime in M41, WAAAGH! Gragnatz invaded and devastated the Vorsk Sub-Sector. As the vast Ork crusade besieged several worlds, rival Warbosses split off to launch their own WAAAGH!s with varying degress of success. Absteron was an Ork-held hollow world.

Alacanth

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Ork-held world and gathering point for WAAAGH! Gorbad. Led by the Ork Warlord known as Overfiend Gorbag, he oversaw a two-progned WAAAGH! in the Gothic Sector in 976.M41.

The three moons of Barac were captured by WAAAGH! Grax in 925.M41, when it descended upon the Ryza System. The vitally important Forge WorldRyza, located at the sector's centre, was comprised of more than a dozen star systems. Soon the entire region was engulfed in the bloody conflict. Though the Orks were unable to establish a foothold on the world of Barac, through treachery and stealth, they were able to capture its three moons. As bitter fighting raged across a hundred fronts, many new warbands and whole WAAAGH! were drawn to Grax's banner and to the ever-growing conflagration.

Previously, Castellax was an Imperial Mining World, but the planet's rich mineral deposits drew the attention of the Iron Warriors 3rd Grand Company of Warsmith Andraaz, who launched a vicious campaign of planetary conquest. Enslaved by their Chaos Space Marine overlords, the populace was forced to work in their master's infernal factories to produce supplies and arms to be sent back to the Iron Warriors' homeworld of Medrengard in the Eye of Terror. The centuries-long rule of the Iron Warriors was finally broken some time in the 41st Millennium, when it fell to a massive invasion by WAAAGH! Biglug. After a vicious campaign against the encroaching Orks and a slave rebellion, Warsmith Andraaz was slain and Castellax was overrun by the Greenskins.

The fifth world in the Armageddon System, Chosis is an Ice World of erratic orbit. Due to the difficulty of colonising it and the poor range of resources present, the planet presented little interest to the Imperium. Nevertheless, during the Second War for Armageddon, the Imperium defended the isolated world. During the Third War for Armageddon, the Orks once against landed on Chosin. The Orks quickly spread across the planet, their numbers swelling to epidemic proportions. This has put its reclamation in serious doubt by Imperial forces. Ironically, the former Imperial military base is now the site of the Ork's main capital settlement.

In 997.M41, the Orks invaded the Imperial world of Cilix. Imperial reinforcements made planetfall on Cilix and began a systematic purge to rid the world of Ork infestation. Resistance remains great.

Corva

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Corva System

In 855.M41, the noted SnakebitesWarboss Hruk Teefsplitta and WAAAGH! Hruk enslaved the entire population of his old stomping grounds, the binary system Corva. Forcing his captives to build him spacecraft with holds cavernous enough to accommodate his beloved mega-menagerie, Hruk then set off for the core worlds of the Imperium.

WAAAGH! Grax invades the Ryza System in 925.M41. After a series of battles with Battlewagon battalions, the Orks captured the vital Promethium-rich mines of the Ice World of Flyberia. Solar decades on from the initial onslaught of WAAAGH! Grax, Orks continue to enter the Ryza System.

In 705.988.M41, the Imperial Hive World of Forsarr was besieged by the millions of Orks of WAAAGH! Garaghak. Despite fierce resistance from several Astra Militarum regiments and a Raven Guard strike force led by Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike, the world eventually fell in 411.996.M41. The Ork-held planet was renamed Garaghak's World. The Warlord now styles himself as the "Warlord of Forsarr." With the defeat of Forsarr, the whole sector was made indefensible for the Astra Militarum High Command, and soon Imperial Guard forces began to retreat en masse, abandoning the Forsarr Sector despite formal complains by the Ecclesiarchy. In 995.999.M41, WAAAGH! Garaghak mustered on Garaghak's World to continue their war against the Imperium.

Following the Second War for Armageddon in 941.M41, the Imperial world of Golgotha was conquered and infested by forces under the command of the infamous Ork WarlordGhazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. Leading an Imperial retribution force, Ghazghkull's old nemesis, CommissarSebastian Yarrick was determined to end the threat of the Ork Warlord once and for all. The Imperial forces were joined by a large Crusade force of Black TemplarsSpace Marines led by High MarshalHelbrecht himself. Unfortunately the Imperial force's efforts failed. Since then, apart from a brief, but significantly smaller Crusade force of Black Templars led by Marshal Actoan in 996.M41, the Ork-held world of Golgotha remains in Greenskin hands.

The Imperial Dead World of Angelis is an ancient NecronTomb World located on the outskirts of the Segmentum Ultima on the Eastern Fringe. The barren world was being surveyed by the Adeptus MechanicusExplorator vessel in 344–345.M35 when an Ork-inhabited Space Hulk crashed into it, creating a massive canyon dubbed "Da Skid" by the Orks. The surviving Orks set about building a new starship to leave the planet and rejoin their WAAAGH!. Unfortunately for the Orks, rivalries broke out over which Ork God the ship resembled. After the destruction of the great ship, both sides decided to band together and name the vessel Gorkamorka, meaning that it could look like either of the Ork Gods, Gork and Mork. As Orks have a somewhat limited vocabulary, this also became the new Greenskin name for the planet.

Gurgit is an Ork Big Mek who led a WAAAGH! against the Tau Empire in 859.999.M41. Upon the Ork-controlled world of Gurgit's Mekworld (named for the Big Mek himself), this became the launch point of his WAAAGH!.

During the 13th Black Crusade, Abaddon recruited massed warbands of Orks to act as mercenary auxilias to his Chaos Legions. Following up on terror raids and cunning feints by the Night Lords and Alpha Legion, many of the Orks banded together into ever-growing tribes that declared themselves as part of the "Green Krusade" (or Kroosade in other sources) in imitation of the grand assault of Chaos. The Green Krusade inundated the Scarus Sector, battering down Imperial defences with a little help from the Chaos Space Marines, particularly of the Night Lords and Black Legion. Now the Orks rule Lethe Eleven and Mordrax, along with most of Imbrium and Ulant.

The infamous Ork Warlord known as Overfiend Gorbag lead this two-pronged WAAAGH! in the Gothic Sector in 976.M41. Most of the major battles were fought in space where the sheer size of Gorbag's fleet, combined with his daring and predatory tactics proved more than a match for the Imperial Navy.

Krakskull is one of several Ork-held worlds of Undred-Undred Teef, a tract of systems at the heart of the Accursed Demesne that is a nest and breeding ground for Orks within the Koronus Expanse. The warring Orks of the Undred-Undred Teef are split into gangs, warbands, and clans that are lead by ever more powerful individual Ork Bosses. Undred Undred Teef is unusual amongst Ork-held systems -- it is home to many more numbers of rich, arrogant Orks known as Flash Gitz than normal.

During the 13th Black Crusade, Abaddon recruited massed warbands of Orks to act as mercenary auxilias to his Chaos Legions. Following up on terror raids and cunning feints by the Night Lords and Alpha Legion many of the Orks banded together into ever-growing tribes that declared themselves as part of the "Green Krusade" (or Kroosade in other sources) in imitation of the grand assault of Chaos. The Green Krusade inundated the Scarus Sector, battering down Imperial defences with a little help from Chaos Space Marines, particularly of the Night Lords and Black Legion. Now the Orks rule Lethe Eleven and Mordrax, along with most of Imbrium and Ulant.

In 705.988.M41, the Forsarr Sector was besieged by millions of Orks of WAAAGH! Garaghak. In 023.996.M41 the Imperial Shrine World of Magdelene IX fell under the threat of an encroaching Greenskin horde. The world was besieged by a combined Ork force of Skalk Bluetoof's Deathskulls and various Goff warbands, spearheaded by Buzzgob's Dreadheadz. Defended by Frateris Militia, thousands of cultists of the Red Redemption and the Sisters of Battle of the Order of the Black Selpulchre, it eventually fell in 866.996.M41, due to the lack of Imperial reinforcements after the fall of Forsarr and was immediately claimed by Garaghak himself. In 476.998.M41, under pressure from the Ecclesiarchy, the 73rdHarakoni Warhawks were deployed to Magdelene IX in a desperate planetfall which predictably failed with heavy losses. Magdelene IX still remains in Ork hands to this day. In 995.999.M41 Orks of WAAAGH! Garaghak mustered on the planet to continue their war against the Imperium.

Marlisanct

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Following his invasion and successful enslavement of the entire population of the binary system of Corva, Snakebites Warboss Hruk Teefsplitta forces its people to build him spacecraft. He then sets off for the core worlds of the Imperium. Teefsplitta successfully leads WAAAGH! Hruk in conquering the nine Shrine Worlds of Marlisanct and uses the Basilica Imperator Majoris as a breeding pen for his famously incontinent Squiggoths.

In 064.952.M41, the Imperial world of Kastorel-Novem was besieged by millions of Orks of WAAAGH! Garaghak. Despite fierce resistance from the planet's garrison, including the 49th Terrax Guard, it was evacuated and fell in 723.952.M41. Ork Mek-Boss Buzzgob turned the captured planet (now renamed Mekslag-Ikks by the Orks) into his personal manufacturing base. In an attempt to slow down the WAAAGH!, Imperial forces planned to cripple the Ork facilities on the planet and kill Mek-Boss Buzzgob. To accomplish this, in 541.992.M41, the Imperium launched a surgical Raid on Kastorel-Novem led by Raven GuardSpace Marines and the Elysian Drop Troops of the Astra Militarum. The mission resulted in failure, with the Imperial forces all but eliminated. In 023.996.M41 Buzzgob used Mekslag-Ikks as a foothold to capture the Imperial Shrine World of Magdelene IX.

Garaghak, also known as the Arch-Killa and Overfiend of Tallarax, is a powerful Ork Warboss, who lead WAAAGH! Garaghak across the Forsarr Sector of the Segmentum Tempestus. After becoming dominant in his own clan, Garaghak managed to gain enough notoriety amongst other Orks to draw more and more warbands under his banner. Soon he became the dominant Ork Warlord of the Forsarr Sector and ruled several former Imperial worlds, including the captured Forge World of Minos V.

During the 13th Black Crusade, Abaddon recruited massed warbands of Orks to act as mercenary auxilias to his Chaos Legions. Following up on terror raids and cunning feints by the Night Lords and Alpha Legion many of the Orks banded together into ever-growing tribes that declared themselves as part of the "Green Krusade" (or Kroosade in other sources) in imitation of the grand assault of Chaos. The Green Krusade inundated the Scarus Sector, battering down Imperial defences with a little help from Chaos Space Marines, particularly of the Night Lords and Black Legion. Now the Orks rule multiple worlds, including the weapon forges of Mordrax, (rechristened Moredakka by the Orks), whose weapon forges are infested with lootas of the Deathskulls clan, a truly terrifying prospect to the devotees of the Machine God, who know full well the depths of blasphemy against the Omnissiah to which these barbaric xenos will sink. Hundreds of Gargants are being built from the debris of war by enslaved Servitors and their brutal Greenskin overseers.

Morloq

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

In 978.M41, the Ork Warlord Grizgutz, a noted kleptomaniac, launched his WAAAGH! into the Morloq System. Whilst using Warp-travel to reach their quarry, Grizgutz and his warband unwittingly traveled through time and emerged from the shifting chaos of the Empyrean shortly before they set off. Grizgutz hunts down and kills his doppelganger, reasoning that this way he could have a spare of his favourite gun. The resultant confusion stops the WAAAGH! in its tracks.

Obetrus

Unknown

Vorsk Sub-sector

Unknown

Unknown

Sometime in M41, WAAAGH! Gragnatz invaded and devastated the Vorsk Sub-sector. As the vast Ork crusade besieged several worlds, rival Warbosses split off to launch their own WAAAGH!s with varying degress of success. Obetrus was an Imperial Night World that was invaded by the vast Greenskin hordes. All indigenous lifeforms were eradicated by the marauding Orks.

Garaghak, also known as the Arch-Killa and Overfiend of Tallarax, is a powerful Ork Warboss, who lead WAAAGH! Garaghak across the Forsarr Sector of the Segmentum Tempestus. After becoming dominant in his own clan, Garaghak managed to gain enough notoriety amongst other Orks to draw more and more warbands under his banner. Soon he became the dominant Ork Warlord of the Forsarr Sector and ruled several former Imperial worlds, including the captured Feral World of Ogrolla.

Periliac Prime

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Periliac System

In 832.M41, the beleaguered planet of Periliac Prime and its entire system buckles and falls under the crushing might of WAAAGH! Drillakilla, thanks in no small part to the delay of the entire 1st Company of the Dark AngelsChapter, en route to the Ork-infested warzones of Periliac Prime, who made an unscheduled detour to the unremarkable mining planet of Minoria.

WAAAGH! Grax invades the Ryza System in 925.M41 and proceeds to capture multiple Imperial worlds. One of these worlds is Proctus Prime, which was overtaken by the Greenskins, who proceeded to enslave the billions of humans who were forced to produce weapons for the Orks. Only a newly arrived Catachan Jungle Fighters Imperial Guard regiment ensured that the Imperium maintained a tenuous hold upon the single continent of Ulani IV, although two of Proctus Prime's sister worlds were now under Ork domination. Solar decades on from the initial onslaught of WAAAGH! Grax, Orks continue to enter the Ryza System.

Pseudopol

Unknown

Vorsk Sub-sector

Unknown

Unknown

Pseudopol was a former comms world located in the Vorsk Sub-sector that has been Ork-held since M37, long before the invasion of WAAAGH! Gragnatz in M41.

Led by the Ork Warlord Gorbad of the Redskulls tribe, WAAAGH! Gorbad assembles in the systems of Alcanath, Redwold and Tyr, before beginning their invasion and capture of the Kolchis System in 994.M41, which was sacrificed in order to buy time for the Ryza System and its vitally important Forge World of Ryza. This WAAAGH! is believed to have proceeded to attack Ryza itself, and presumably joined forces with WAAAGH! Grax.

Scalex VI

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Wazdakka Gutsmek is an Ork Mekboy, and more specifically an Ork Warbiker, who is perhaps the greatest that ever lived. He led a massive WAAAGH! comprised entirely of Speed Freeks. He dreamed of creating portals from planet to planet so he could drive his warbike from one end of the galaxy to another, slaughtering everything in his path. Wazdakka's newborn WAAAGH! was nearly stopped in its tracks at the Imperial Forge World of Scalex VI, where the Speed Freek Warlord's horde of bikers were engaged by a Titan Legion of the Adeptus Mechanicus led by a Warlord-class Battle Titan. Through his daring and insane bravado, Wazdakka managed to take out the Warlord Titan in an insane and near-suicidal act of recklessness. Scalex VI became the newest addition to Wazdakka's growing Ork interstellar empire, its modified manufactorums and human slave labour now churning out vehicles of all shapes and sizes to join Wazdakka's WAAAGH! Since that day, Wazdakka's prize possession has been the still-flaming skulls of the Titan's Princeps and his command crew, which remind the Speed Freek Warlord of his greatest feat of arms.

Scythia

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Vorsk Sub-sector

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Sometime in M41, WAAAGH! Gragnatz invaded and devastated the Vorsk Sub-sector. As the vast Ork crusade besieged several worlds, rival Warbosses split off to launch their own WAAAGH!s with varying degress of success. Scythia was a NecronTomb World that was invaded by the Orks where they managed to salvage several teleport nodes.

Snagruz is one of several Ork-held worlds of Undred-Undred Teef, a tract of star systems at the heart of the Accursed Demesne that is a nest and breeding ground for Orks within the Koronus Expanse. The warring Orks of the Undred-Undred Teef are split into gangs, warbands, and clans that are lead by ever more powerful individual Ork Bosses. Undred Undred Teef is unusual amongst Ork-held systems -- it is home to many more numbers of rich, arrogant Orks known as Flash Gitz than normal.

Stompgit is one of several Ork-held worlds of Undred-Undred Teef, a tract of systems at the heart of the Accursed Demesne that is a nest and breeding ground for Orks within the Koronus Expanse. The warring Orks of the Undred-Undred Teef are split into gangs, warbands, and clans that are lead by ever more powerful individual Ork Bosses. Undred Undred Teef is unusual amongst Ork-held systems -- it is home to many more numbers of rich, arrogant Orks known as Flash Gitz than normal.

Garaghak, also known as the Arch-Killa and Overfiend of Tallarax, is a powerful Ork Warboss, who leads WAAAGH! Garaghak across the Forsarr Sector of the Segmentum Tempestus. After becoming dominant in his own clan, Garaghak managed to gain enough notoriety amongst other Orks to draw more and more warbands under his banner. Soon he became the dominant Ork Warlord of the Forsarr Sector and rule several former Imperial worlds, including the overrun Fortress World of Tallarax.

Garaghak also known as the Arch-Killa and Overfiend of Tallarax, is a powerful Ork Warboss, who leads WAAAGH! Garaghak across the Forsarr Sector of the Segmentum Tempestus. After becoming dominant in his own clan, Garaghak managed to gain enough notoriety amongst other Orks to draw more and more warbands under his banner. Soon he became the dominant Ork Warlord of the Forsarr Sector and rule several former Imperial worlds, including the enslaved Civilised World of Thoria III.

In M35, the Ork Warboss Arrgard the Defiler overran the Imperial Forge World of Tigrus. As a result, the STC and capacity to produce the Leman Russ Vanquisher was lost to the Adeptus Mechanicus, making the vehicles increasingly rare.

Tusk is one of several Ork-held worlds of Undred-Undred Teef, a tract of systems at the heart of the Accursed Demesne that is a nest and breeding ground for Orks within the Koronus Expanse. The warring Orks of the Undred-Undred Teef are split into gangs, warbands, and clans that are lead by ever more powerful individual Ork Bosses. Undred Undred Teef is unusual amongst Ork-held systems -- it is home to many more numbers of rich, arrogant Orks known as Flash Gitz than normal. At the centre of Undred-Undred Teef is a world where Orks have bred in greatest numbers and where the battle between them is fiercer than on any other. In the brutal tongue of the Ork this place is called Tusk and it is the true heart of Undred-Undred Teef.

Led by Ork Warlord Gorbad of the Redskulls tribe, WAAAGH! Gorbad assembled in the systems of Alcanath, Redwold and Tyr, before beginning their invasion and capture of the Kolchis System in 994.M41, which was sacrificed in order to buy time for the Ryza System and its vitally important Forge World of Ryza. This WAAAGH! is believed to have proceeded to attack Ryza itself, and presumably joined forces with WAAAGH! Grax.

The world of Ulani IV and its two sister worlds were captured by WAAAGH! Grax in 925.M41, when it descended upon the Ryza System. The vitally important Forge WorldRyza, located at the sector's centre, was comprised of more than a dozen star systems. Soon the entire region was engulfed in the bloody conflict. As bitter fighting raged across a hundred fronts, many new warbands and whole WAAAGH! were drawn to Grax's banner and to the ever-growing conflagration.

During the 13th Black Crusade, Abaddon recruited massed warbands of Orks to act as mercenary auxilias to his Chaos Legions. Following up on terror raids and cunning feints by the Night Lords and Alpha Legion many of the Orks banded together into ever-growing tribes that declared themselves as part of the "Green Krusade" (or Kroosade in other sources) in imitation of the grand assault of Chaos. The Green Krusade inundated the Scarus Sector, battering down Imperial defences with a little help from the Chaos Space Marines, particularly of the Night Lords and Black Legion. Now the Orks rule Lethe Eleven and Mordrax, along with most of Imbrium and Ulant.

Garaghak, also known as the Arch-Killa and Overfiend of Tallarax, is a powerful Ork Warboss, who lead WAAAGH! Garaghak across the Forsarr Sector of the Segmentum Tempestus. After becoming dominant in his own clan, Garaghak managed to gain enough notoriety amongst other Orks to draw more and more warbands under his banner. Soon he became the dominant Ork warlord of the Forsarr Sector and ruled several former Imperial worlds, including the captured Paradise World of Viridios Prime.

Vorsk

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Vorsk Sub-sector

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Sometime in M41, WAAAGH! Gragnatz invaded and devastated the Vorsk Sub-sector. As the vast Ork crusade besieged several worlds, rival Warbosses split off to launch their own WAAAGH!s with varying degress of success.

Yurk

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In 919.M41, the Eldar CorsairPrince Yriel and his warriors make planetfall upon the backwater Ork planet of Yurk and kill the Ork Warboss mustering his forces along with the entirety of his ruling caste. Their blades bloodied, Yriel and the warriors of CraftworldIyanden disappear back into the void without losing a single Eldar life.

Zogg-Dis

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Zogg-Dis is the Ork domain of the Ork Warlord Zoggit, who is famous for killing anyone foolish enough to imply he might be a bit of a Weirdboy. In 227.M38, he declared a WAAAGH! and launched it straight into the vermillion Dark Eldar spacecraft encroaching upon his world. He and his Boyz emerge in the Commorrite port-spar of Blackblood, much to the surprise of its resident Kabal. The resultant storm of violence carries hundreds of thousands of Orks into the twisting byways of Commorragh. War is joined in earnest when the Dark City turns its attention to the Orkoid invasion, systematically isolating each arm of the Ork invasion in order to destroy it piece by piece. Several districts of the Dark City are toppled or burnt to cinders by wave upon wave of howling Orks. Eventually the Orks are coralled and over 10,000 Greenskins are captured by the Wych districts. Their arenas are packed to capacity for almost an entire Terran fortnight, as the Dark Eldar revel in the resultant orgy of violence.

Former Ork Worlds

Planet Name

Segmentum

Sector

Sub-Sector

System

Notes

Baran

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Zypher Sub-sector

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Baran is a Feudal World of rolling blue oceans, expansive forests, and rolling steppe land. It was originally an EldarExodite World, but was conquered by the Orks of WAAAGH! Arbuttz in the late 40th Millennium. By 224.M41 an Imperial Crusade passed over the world and finally liberated it from its Ork overlords.

In 926.M41, the Catachan II Regiment of the Imperial Guard, led by Colonel Straken, was the only regiment to survive planetfall during the Dulma'lin Cleansing. Under Straken's orders, the Catachan regiment fought a standard year-long guerrilla war in the subterranean depths of the planet's caverns, earning a fearsome reputation amongst the Ork tribes. Eventually, Imperial forces successfully clear the planet of its Ork presence.

Ghorala was an Ork World controlled by Ork Warboss Skarfang, a fearsome Ork Freebooter, and his dreaded Skar Fleet. In 999.M41, during the invasion of Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan, Inquisitor Kryptman managed to divert a large tendril of the Hive Fleet into the Ork Empire of Charadon, where the Tyranids fell upon the world of Ghorala. Though the Orks reveled in the ferocious fighting that followed, they were nevertheless doomed to fail. With the death of their Warboss, Ghorala soon fell to the Great Devourer and was consumed of all life.

Graegus

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Graegus was an Ork-held world controlled by a wily band of Ork Freebooterz. In 345.M37, they came into conflict with the Dark EldarKabal of the Poisoned Tongue. Incensed that mere barbarian Greenskins should deny her will, Lady Aurelia Malys personally engineered the Orks' downfall. Capturing a musclebound Ork Nob, Lady Malys' Kabal made planetfall solar weeks later. She fought her way into the centre of the Ork capital city and impaled the barely-living captive upon a half-built Gargant. The corpse begins to shed millions of spores into the air, each of which bears a cargo of terrible wasting toxins. As the infected spores corrupt the Orkoid reproductive cycle, the population of Graegus grows weaker and weaker. When Malys returns, it is a simple matter to slaughter the survivors.

Jagga was an Ork-held world controlled by Kaptin Blackgit and his Ork Freebooterz warband, the Star Krumpas. His considerable Kill Kroozer fleet had been the bane of Imperial shipping within the southern Segmentum Ultima for many standard years, until Jagga and its defenders were attacked by the Tyranid Hive Fleet Behemoth. The Ork pirates put up vicious resistance and gave the aliens their toughest fight to that point in our galaxy. In the end, however, the planet was consumed of all life by the Tyranids.

A former prosperous Imperial world named Urokleas was discovered during the Dark Age of Technology. Human settlers flourished upon it until it was invaded by Orks and conquered during the Age of Strife. The planet was retaken for the Imperium by the Dark AngelsLegion during the Great Crusade. In the middle of the 32nd Millennium, it was conquered once more by a massive Ork WAAAGH! It was the largest recorded Ork invasion, with dozens of conflicts raging across all five Segmentum of the Imperium. Soon the Zornian System that was home to Urokleas were conquered by the Orks. Renamed Urk, the planet was held by the Orks for the next eight thousand standard years. This world was the birth planet of the infamous Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. It was on Urk that he received his vision of conquest from Gork and Mork. When the Zornian star which Urk orbited began to die, Ghazghkull convinced his fellow Orks to build a massive Space Hulk, and once completed, launched the vessel into orbit to begin his Green Krusade. It is assumed that soon after the Zornian star began its death throes, Urk became uninhabitable.

Xit was a former Feudal World colonised by humanity during the Dark Age of Technology. Home to a simple feudal society, Xit's people were cut off from the rest of the galaxy by the fierce Warp Storms that surrounded the sub-sector, a grouping that became known as the Wheel of Fire. Unable to leave, the Orks made war upon the worlds of this sub-sector. For over fifty standard years they ruled Xit, enslaving much of the human population and forcing others to hide in its forests, until the arrival of an Imperial Crusade chiefly made up of a large force of the Space WolvesChapter in 982.M41. Xit was the last world attacked by those fierce Astartes during their five-year mission to pacify the system. It is not known if Xit was completely cleansed of the Ork presence.